BETSY DEVOS. Education Secretary defends slashing $17.6 million in federal funding for the Special Olympics: “Make no mistake: we are focused every day on raising expectations and improving outcomes for infants and toddlers, children and youth with disabilities, and are committed to confronting and addressing anything that stands in the way of their success.”
CHICAGO. City poised to elect first openly gay mayor, Lori Lightfoot. “I don’t want to overgeneralize, but most black women I know are tough. We have to be,” she said. “We live in a world that isn’t welcoming to us.”
THE BROTHERS. Jussie Smollett’s alleged assailants refuse to make a statement.
STACEY ABRAMS. The Georgia Democrat makes the case that she’s qualified to be president.
TAX RETURNS. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is first presidential candidate to release 2018 tax return. “Last year, the New York Democrat reported that she earned about $218,000 — bringing in $167,634 from her congressional salary and an additional $50,000 from her book deal. She paid $29,170 in federal taxes. Her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, who has worked in venture capital, did not report any income in 2018.”
‘A PERSONAL CAPACITY’ Justice Department defends Trumps Twitter blocking.
MUELLER GRAND JURY. “Continuing robustly.“
SECOND TRY. Mitch McConnell blocks Senate resolution calling for release of Mueller report. “I have consistently supported the proposition that his report ought to be released to the greatest extent possible, consistent with the law. … I think we should be consistent in letting the special counsel actually finish his work and not just when we think it may be politically advantageous to one side or the other.”
SORRY U GOT SCARED. Rosie O’Donnell responds to Elisabeth Hasselbeck over her View crush.
CHARADE. Congressman blasts Barr handling of the Mueller report. “I think this whole thing has been a charade. Bill Barr was appointed to give this type of ‘analysis’ of the Mueller report, and it really discredits and it is an undoing of what Bob Mueller spent 22 months doing, and for him to sum it up in a three-page report. If there’s nothing in the report that will make people think there was obstruction of justice and or conspiracy with some members of the Trump administration, it should be allowed to be public to see it. The fact that they don’t want the public to see it makes you think they know this was all a whitewash and a charade.”
KANSAS. Judge who played key role in first gay marriage to retire: “The Kansas Office of Judicial Administration says Johnson County District Judge Kevin Moriarty will retire on June 28. In October 2014, Moriarty ordered the county to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples following the U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to hear appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans on gay marriage.”
CHRIS EVANS. On why he’s single. “I was always a really autonomous guy my whole life. Camping by myself is one of my favorite things. I really like to be with someone who also has their own thing to do as well, you know?”
BARBARA BUSH. Trump caused her ‘heart attack’: ‘It wasn’t technically a heart attack, though she called it that. It was a crisis in her long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease that hit her like a sledgehammer one day in June 2016. An ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. The two former presidents who had been at home with her that day, her husband and her oldest son, trailed in a car driven by the Secret Service. The tumultuous presidential campaign in general and Trump’s ridicule of son Jeb Bush in particular had riled her. “Angst,” she told me.’
TECH REVIEW OF THE DAY. Airpods 2.
HUMP DAY HOTTIE. Ryan Weaver.
